Tracking
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: The Hogwarts Express arrives late at Hogsmeade and without students. Will Severus Snape, Harry Potter and the Weasley twins be able to find and rescue them? My traditional first of September story for 2012. Completely AU, rated T because of char. death!Voldemort


**Tracking**  
**by Healer Pomfrey**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

* * *

"Harry, I'm afraid that I can't allow you to take the Hogwarts Express," Molly Weasley said, sighing as she slid her wand into her robe pocket. "Your temperature is still elevated, and I'm afraid that it would be too strenuous for you to ride the train for such a long time. I'll contact Professor McGonagall and tell her that you and the twins will take the Floo to Hogwarts in the afternoon. "

"Okay, Mrs. Weasley," Harry replied, inwardly groaning. During the last week of the summer holidays, he and the twins had been suffering from a bad case of the Grindylow pox, and although he was happy that he was allowed to return to the school at all, he was very disappointed about not being able to take the train. '_At least the twins are with me,'_ he thought as he obediently accepted another dose of a lime green potion from Mrs. Weasley.

"See you at Hogwarts, mate," Ron said, sympathetically, as he left the room after his mother.

_'Ahh, this is going to become a boring day,'_ Harry mused and turned towards the wall to sleep for a while, when two small cracks disturbed the silence.

"Hey Harrykins…"

"Today's a great day for pranks…"

"Wake up lazybones…"

"… and come to our room…"

"… so we can brew something."

Harry slowly turned around, blinking. Fred and George were standing in front of his bed, broadly grinning down at him. Suddenly feeling very happy at the twins' company, Harry scrambled out of his bed, throwing his robes over. "All right, I'm ready," he said, returning the twins' smile.

While Mrs. Weasley accompanied her other children to King's Cross, the three sick boys busied themselves brewing a tickling potion in a cauldron in the twins' room.

"In contrary to a tickling charm, this cannot be cancelled…"

"… and the person affected will feel very tickly for 24 hours," the twins explained.

"So we should only use it against someone like…"

"… let's say Malfoy or such."

It took a few hours to brew the potion, and just when Harry returned to his room, a phial of the prank potion in his robe pocket, he heard Mrs. Weasley come half-way up the stairs, calling for him and the twins for lunch.

Late in the afternoon, Mrs. Weasley gathered the three boys in front of the fireplace. "Professor McGonagall is waiting for you in Madam Pomfrey's office," she told them. "She wants her to check you over and confirm that you're not contagious anymore. Fred, will you go first?"

HP

Five minutes later, the three boys were standing in Madam Pomfrey's office, where they were greeted by their Head of House and the Healer. Pomfrey motioned them to sit on the sofa, before she consecutively waved her wand over each of them. Harry inwardly groaned. _'I just hope Malfoy won't notice that I haven't been on the Hogwarts Express or he'll never cease talking about it,'_ he thought, looking up in shock at the Healer's words.

"It's a good thing that your mother spared you the train ride," Pomfrey said, before she turned to McGonagall. "They may attend the Welcoming Feast, but afterwards, I want them back here. We'll see if they'll be well enough to attend classes tomorrow."

"Very well," the Scottish lioness agreed, not giving the three boys any space for protest. "Come with me to the Great Hall; I'm sure your friends will arrive shortly."

_'Strange,'_ Harry mused as he followed his Head of House and the twins through the empty halls of Hogwarts. _'I've never seen Hogwarts this quiet, not even during the winter holidays.'_ Together with the twins, he took a seat at the Gryffindor table, as far away from the teacher's table as possible.

"At least they won't be able to listen in," Fred whispered, contentedly.

"That's true. When are we going to use the potion? Tonight?" Harry whispered back, looking from Fred to George, who shook his head.

"No, let's wait till the morning. It'll be more fun doing it right before class," George decided, causing his twin and Harry to agree immediately.

The three boys spent a while talking about each of the teachers, who were sitting at the Head table, equally waiting for the students to arrive, among them a witch, who was completely dressed in pink. Harry found her extremely unsympathetic and couldn't help chuckling, when Fred voiced that her expression reminded him of a toad. From the teachers, the topic turned to Quidditch and to the question if they needed tryouts, before their attention was once again driven to the Head table, when Hagrid stormed into the Great Hall and strode right to the Headmaster's seat, his heavy steps sounding loud in the almost empty hall.

"The Hogwarts Express has not arrived?" Harry heard Dumbledore query in apparent disbelief.

He glanced at his wrist watch, noticing in surprise that more than an hour had passed since McGonagall had accompanied them to the Great Hall. _'Awkward,'_ he mused, suddenly remembering how the Hogwarts Express had been stopped by Dementors two years ago. Absentmindedly, he observed how Hagrid hurriedly left the Great Hall again, before Dumbledore stepped in front of the fireplace and threw Floo powder in, calling for the Minister of Magic's office. In a whoosh of green flames, the Headmaster vanished from the sight.

A while later, the old wizard returned and announced, "The Ministry knows nothing, and according to their records the Hogwarts Express has successfully made its way to Hogsmeade. Severus, do you have any hint that Voldemort might be involved in this mystery?"

Just when the Potions Master shook his head in denial, Twinkle, the Headmaster's personal house-elf, popped up in front of the Head table.

"Master Professor Dumbledore, the train is just arrives at Hogsmeade, but there is no students on board," the elf reported.

"Severus," Dumbledore again addressed the Potions Master. "Will you please go to Hogsmeade and investigate? Take Harry and Messrs. Weasley with you."

Harry cast the twins a horrified look. _'Going to search for everyone together with Snape?'_ he mused._ 'I wished we could just wait for them in the common room.'_

"Isn't it exciting?" George whispered, cheeringly.

"Well, at least better than being stuck in the hospital wing," Fred agreed, causing Harry to nod, whole heartedly.

"That's true," he admitted, "even if it's together with Snape."

HP

A few minutes later, the three friends hurried behind the professor to Hogsmeade, trying to catch up with the teacher's fast space in spite of still feeling weak from their illness. Harry sighed in relief, when they reached the platform, where the Hogwarts Express was waiting as if nothing out of the usual had occurred. With a slightly anxious feeling, he boarded the train after Snape and the twins, wondering how they were supposed to find the missing students.

Snape motioned them to take seats in the first compartment, of which Harry knew that it was usually reserved for the prefects. Seeing that the boys complied, the Potions Master waved his wand at the steam engine and cast a long incantation, which Harry could not understand.

"Professor..."

"... what was that?" Fred and George queried, curiously looking at the Slytherin, who lowered himself into the seat opposite of Harry.

"The spell makes the train move back to where it came from, including any possible stop, where the students might have got off," Snape replied, surprisingly patiently. "In fact, I'd have preferred if the Headmaster had sent Fawkes to one of the more responsible students to enquire what happened; however, since he made the decision to send us after them, we can only comply. If you're hungry or thirsty, considering that we didn't have dinner yet, I shall call my house-elf, who will bring something for you."

"No thank you," Harry said quietly, not feeling in the least hungry.

The twins also denied, and the four wizards proceeded to quietly remain in their seats, each of them wondering where the train might stop. _'Maybe it won't even stop until King's Cross,'_ Harry mused, _'although that's unlikely considering that it arrived at Hogsmeade at least an hour late.'_ While the train steadily made its way back into the direction of London, he slowly drifted off to sleep, only jerking awake when the train abruptly came to a halt.

Snape rose from his seat and once again waved his wand at the engine, mumbling something. "This makes the train stop here until we'll be back and tell it otherwise," he explained, seeing the boys' questioning looks.

The four wizards climbed out of the train. To their surprise, they found themselves in front of a large building, which astoundingly resembled Hogwarts.

"This must be the Dark Lord's doing," the professor whispered. "He made a fake school and abducted all the students. Now, I'm going to cast an invisibility and notice-me-not charm on each of us. Please remain quiet, stay together and do as I tell you at all times. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," the three boys replied, simultaneously, quietly observing the professor cast the charms at them, before they anxiously made their way to the entrance doors.

"I believe that it's charmed to look like Hogwarts," Snape said slowly, pointing out that the walls had an almost black colour and that the Gryffindor tower was missing. With that he opened the equally dark entrance door.

As soon as Harry entered the building, a sharp pain shot through his scar. He immediately pressed his hand against his forehead, unable to prevent a small moan from escaping his lips.

"Potter, what's wrong?" Snape queried, alarmed.

"He's not completely recovered from the Grindylow pox..."

"... which is why we weren't on the train but flooed to Hogwarts..."

"No," Harry interrupted the twins' tirade. "It's my scar. Voldemort must be nearby."

"The Headmaster sent you on such a dangerous mission in spite of being ill?" Snape hissed in apparent disbelief, muttering something to himself that sounded like "mad old coot." He ushered the students into a nearby classroom, knowing that surely no one would come into a classroom in the middle of the night. Instructing the boys to sit down, he called Cicero, his house-elf, and informed him about the situation. "Find out where the Dark Lord is and where the students are," he ordered the elf, who, in Harry's opinion, was fairly tall for an elf.

"Yes Master Severus," Cicero confirmed and popped away.

While they were waiting for the elf to return, Snape consecutively pointed his wand at the three boys' heads, shaking his head in annoyance at the results, which emerged in small yellow letters from the tip of his wand. He pulled a small phial out of one of his robe's inner pockets and motioned the boys to take two sips each.

A mere instant later, Cicero was back. "The Dark Lord and all the Death Eater teachers are asleep in their private quarters, which are connected to their offices and classrooms. The students are not separated in Houses but are all asleep in dormitories in the dungeons, only divided by the year. Each dormitory holds five students."

The professor gave the elf an appreciating nod and turned to the students. "I don't trust my Slytherins. I know of course who are Death Eaters; however, I'm not certain who is firmly on our side. Is there anyone, whom you could ask what exactly happened?"

"Our sister," the twins replied, simultaneously.

"Or Hermione," Harry added, thoughtfully, "but Ginny is okay."

"Very well." Snape nodded and instructed Cicero, "Fetch Ms. Weasley from the fourth year dormitory."

"Yes Master Severus," Cicero replied and popped away, only to reappear together with Ginny a moment later.

"Ms. Weasley, I apologize for waking you up during the night," Snape began to speak in a soft voice that made Harry cast him a surprised look. "We just wish to know what happened after you left the Hogwarts Express."

Ginny looked at the professor in disdain. "And for that you woke me up in the middle of the night?" she growled. "The Dark Lord brought us to his own school, where we'll be able to study what we really need in order to triumph over the light and the meddling old coot."

Harry stared at the girl with a combination of horror and disbelief. _'Oh no, what happened?'_ he wondered, feeling slightly reassured when the professor instructed his elf to take Ginny back to her dormitory and fetch Hermione.

"Ah Professor Snape, thank Merlin you managed to find us so quickly," Hermione blurted out the instant she arrived with Cicero. "Harry, are you all right? I was so worried, when Ron told me..."

"Ms. Granger," Snape impatiently interrupted her speech. "Please tell us exactly what happened from the moment you left the Hogwarts Express onwards."

"Okay sir." She tiredly looked at the professor. "Excuse me, sir, but may I sit down?"

"Of course," Snape replied, invitingly waving his hand to an empty seat.

"Death Eaters were standing on the platform and ushered us to the school. Some people thought it was Hogwarts, especially the first years, but I noticed that it looked different. Anyway, we were gathered in the Great Hall, and Voldemort was there. He told us that he was the Headmaster now and that Professor Dumbledore and all the other teachers had been fired. Therefore, the Sorting wouldn't be necessary anymore, as there would only be Slytherin in the future. That was all, before the meal popped up on the tables. I was scared that they might have tampered the food or the pumpkin juice, so I didn't eat or drink anything, but everyone else did, and from that instant they all turned evil. All the students are on the dark side now." At this point, her words that had been sounding more and more excited turned into sobs.

"Now now, it's all right, Ms. Granger," Snape said, surprisingly gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry; if it was a potion in the meal, we'll easily be able to reverse the effects by a counter potion in the students' breakfast." He turned to the elf. "Cicero, fetch three large phials of the Reverbev potion and see to it that it'll be added to the students' breakfast."

The elf acknowledged the professor's words and popped away.

"Sir?" Hermione was the first to speak. "How are we going to get everyone out of here, considering that Voldemort and his teachers will be present at breakfast, too?"

"I am just going to set up a plan," Snape replied, seemingly irritated. "We need the Order of the Phoenix as well as the Aurors here."

"But Sir, you can't be seen by Voldemort, otherwise it'll blow your cover," Harry threw in, glaring at the twins, when they began to chuckle in spite of the situation.

"We won't need anyone..."

"... only the tickling potion that we brewed today," Fred and George said, cheerily.

"We were bored at home..."

"... and brewed a fairly strong tickling potion," they explained to the professor, pulling the phials with their invention out of their robe pockets.

Harry followed their example. "You may try it out on me if you want," he offered in a small voice.

The professor quirked an eyebrow. "I'm sure your mother will be very happy to hear how you occupied themselves, when you were not well enough to board the Hogwarts Express."

"Ah professor..."

"... We've been brewing potions in our room since we were three..."

"... but please don't tell her anyway," the twins replied, grinning broadly.

Snape took the phial from Harry, closely viewed it, before he uncorked it and sniffed. "No need to test it, Mr. Potter," he stated, seemingly contentedly. "This seems very strong. One phial should be more than enough for the Head table."

"Please use two to be sure, sir," Hermione threw in, excitedly running a hand through her bushy hair.

"Very well," the Potions Master agreed and once again called Cicero instructing him to take the twins' phials and add them to the food and drinks supposed to be served at the teachers' table at breakfast. "Afterwards inform Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall about our whereabouts and tell them to get the Order of the Phoenix as well as the Aurors here. They should remain invisible outside the school, until they receive my Patronus."

"Yes Master Severus," Cicero replied and shortly repeated the request to make sure that he had understood every detail, before he vanished from the sight.

"Dobby would also help if necessary," Harry suddenly remembered, giving the professor a questioning look.

"No need, Mr. Potter," Snape said, dismissively, glancing at his wrist watch. "It's three o'clock now, and I suggest that Ms. Granger returns to her dormitory and the three of you lie down on the floor and get some sleep. I'll wake you up right in time for breakfast." Rolling his eyes at Hermione's protest, he conjured four thick mattresses, pillows and bed covers.

"Thank you sir, but don't you need to sleep as well?" Harry asked quietly, in spite of not wanting anything but to lie down on one of the comfortable looking mattresses right away.

"No Mr. Potter, I'll be fine, but you need your sleep. You won't want to miss the whole first week of classes now, will you?"

"Of course not," Harry mumbled, tiredly, as he occupied the last of the four mattresses.

"Thank you for letting me stay here," Hermione spoke up once more, before the room became quiet apart from the occasional snore.

HP

Too soon for Harry's liking, the professor woke them up, made him and the twins drink a potion and renewed the invisibility and notice-me-not charms, before he made them eat a small breakfast that Cicero had provided for them. Making sure that everyone had at least eaten a little portion, he decided, "It might still be a tad early, but we'll head into the Great Hall and quietly wait in one of the back corners. The Aurors and the members of the Order of the Phoenix are already assembled in front of the entrance doors in case we need help."

"What exactly do we need to do, sir?" Hermione enquired, eyeing the professor with eagerness.

"If I'm not mistaken, the tickling potion is strong enough to make the teachers, including the Dark Lord, unable to defend themselves to say the least," Snape replied, smirking. "If that's the case, we're going to stun each of them."

"But are you sure that all students have eaten enough for the dark potion to be revoked by the time the teachers have consumed a sufficient amount of the tickling potion, sir?" Hermione threw in, worriedly. "Otherwise, the students might help the Death Eater teachers and fight us."

"In that case, I'm going to send a Patronus or call Cicero to relay the message, and the Aurors and the Order will help us within seconds," Snape reassured her in a voice that held no malice.

_'He's been really nice since we came here,_ _very unlike his usual behaviour,' _Harry mused as he followed the others out of the classroom into the still empty corridor, noticing again how dark the walls were. _'I don't like it,'_ he thought, longing to be back at Hogwarts.

HP

Snape and the four students watched from a corner how the students and teachers filed into the Great Hall, which looked very similar to the original Great Hall at Hogwarts, except for the colour of the walls. "But the ceiling is not made as proficiently as the one at Hogwarts," Hermione whispered to Harry, causing the boy to grin.

_'Typically Hermione,'_ he thought, amused, in spite of the pain from his scar, which alerted him to the fact that Voldemort was approaching the Great Hall.

"He's coming," he whispered to the others, mentally preparing himself to attack the evil wizard in a few minutes' time.

In contrary to Dumbledore, Voldemort did not address the students on this first morning after their arrival but immediately turned to Bellatrix Lestrange, who was sitting on his right hand side. Harry observed with anxiousness how the two evil adults engrossed themselves in their conversation, while everyone else eagerly ate their breakfast. _'Thank Merlin at least he drinks his coffee or whatever it is,'_ he realised. _'Let's hope that the potion will be efficient enough that way.'_

Harry and his friends did not have to wait long. A few minutes after Voldemort had arrived and breakfast began, all of the teachers began to chuckle and giggle in an uncontrolled manner.

"Now," Snape suddenly hissed. "Granger, you stun Lestrange, Fred Weasley the two wizards next to her, George Weasley the other two, Potter, you stun Malfoy. I'll watch and help if necessary, and afterwards, I'll go for the Dark Lord." At the same time, he sent a Patronus to the allies outside the school with the request for help if needed.

Glad to be invisible, Harry ran to the front of the Hall and, trying to ignore the growing pain in his scar, pointed his wand at Lucius Malfoy, who merely chuckled, until he suddenly froze and remained completely unmoving.

Seeing from the corner of his eyes that everyone else was succeeding as well, Harry quickly turned right, where Voldemort was sitting less than a metre away from him. A sudden thought crossed his mind, and he hurriedly pulled out the phial with the tickling potion from his robe pocket, emptying the contents over his evil rival.

Before Snape could do as much as stun the man, Voldemort fell from his seat and continued to uncontrollably laugh, rolling from one side to the other on the stone floor. _'What to do with him?'_ Harry wondered, barely noticing that the whole student body was gathered around the Head table, watching Voldemort wriggle over the floor . Suddenly, the evil wizard's movements ceased like those of his colleagues before. _'It's not enough to stun him,'_ Harry thought. Knowing that he did not have time to properly consider the matter, he waved his wand at the evil wizard and transfigured him into cow dung, sighing in relief, when he heard Snape cast the Evanesco spell to completely vanish the remainings of one evil wizard.

Cancelling the invisibility and notice-me-not spells from himself and the students, Snape called forward the Aurors, who immediately proceeded to send the still stunned Death Eaters straight to Azkaban using special Portkeys.

"Where is You-Know-Who?" Mr. Weasley asked, eyeing the twins in concern, who happily relayed the story to their parent.

"Very well, all students fetch your luggage from your dormitories and get on the Hogwarts Express. The train will leave and take you all to Hogwarts, as soon as everyone has boarded," Snape announced in a no-nonsense voice, causing all the students to hurriedly leave the Hall.

"I just hope the students are all back to normal," Harry whispered to the twins, as they climbed onto the train waiting for the others to arrive.

A few minutes later, Hermione, Ginny and Ron stormed into the compartment. "That was cool," Ron blurted out, "but what exactly happened? We couldn't see you and only watched You-Know-Who rolling over the floor laughing, before he changed into dragon dung and vanished. Is he dead?"

"Cow dung," Harry absentmindedly corrected his friend, before he pondered the matter and replied, "I suppose that he's gone. My scar ceased to hurt the instant Snape evanescoed him."

"Well done, Harry, congrats," Ginny cheered, happily smiling at Harry.

"Yes..."

"... they're back," the twins laughed, causing Harry to chuckle, before he nestled deeper into his seat to get some much needed sleep until the Hogwarts Express would reach Hogwarts with a fifteen-hour delay.

_'Thank Merlin, we're back home,'_ Harry thought, as he approached the castle, taking in the much lighter walls of the real Hogwarts in relief.

**The End**


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